The buildings have become so popular within the community that climbers have been sharing detailed instructions online to help their peers circumvent fences and overcome “difficult points”, the report said.

In a photo that appeared online in April, a group of climbers were shown sitting on steel racks near the top of one building, with the rest of the city beneath their feet.

Many visitors have written “I have been here” and the dates of their climbs on the walls, the report said.

The Guoson centre is a commercial complex that occupies a 510,000 square-metre area in eastern Beijing. The unfinished development has changed hands multiple times and construction was halted amid a long-running dispute between partners, according to an earlier report by Beijing Commercial Daily.